Saturday, November 17, 2012

Low Carb Cornbread in Time for Low Carb Thanksgiving Turkey and Dressing

Hopin' and prayin' the low carb cornbread looksa fraction as good as this one does!

Apologies for being late with this recipe and with the absence of pictures. I wanted to at least get it out there for anyone who wants or feels like being a recipe tester! I hope to get to test it before Thanksgiving Day, but the way the week is looking, I don’t see it happening. When I do test it, I will place photos in this recipe and confirm the rating.

This is a test recipe. I’m putting it up because if any of you want to make a low carb version of our grandmother, WaWa’s Dressing, this low carb cornbread recipe will help you make the dressing low carb. It is such a delicious high carb dressing, that I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be awesome as a low carb version.I will put the Dressing recipe up tomorrow – again without photos. I’m really prayin’ my energy comes back soon (for those of you just tuning in, I had my first of 3-4 reconstruction surgeries for Stage IIIC breast cancer on September 25th and I'm battling a bit of fatigue, pain and lymphedema complications) and that I will be able to resume my previous posting schedule of 2-3 recipes per week! For those of you looking for a tried and true low carb cornbread for use in your low carb Thanksgiving dressing, ChickenLady at LCF has a good one, if you can tolerate almonds (which I can’t).

Chicken Lady's Golden Cornbread actually served as the inspiration for this almond-free version below. One of the tough things about having food allergies and sensitivities and low carbing is it means your recipes are fairly creative and sometimes more involved. If you are lucky enough to be able to eat almonds, there are so many baking recipes and so many low carb flour substitutes that work great in pastry, breads and desserts.

But if you can't eat almonds or nuts, then the challenge is to find a "flour like" substitute that also has a bulking factor. I've found through hours of trial and error, you get a better result with a combination of different "flour" or "flour like" substances than you get with a single ingredient...hence all the ingredients in the cornbread! My instinct is this recipe will work. I'm using dry ingredients that should allow for loft while increasing fiber and also added the "masa mixture" I use for corn tostadas.

Hope one of you will try the low carb cornbread and will get back with us to let us know how it turned out!! I'm going to post the dressing recipe tomorrow.

Grind popcorn to a medium grind cornmeal texture in a clean coffee grinder.

Grind psyllium husks in clean coffee grinder. (2 Tbsp (10g by weight) whole psyllium theoretically makes about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 tablespoons of pre-ground husks or husks ground to a FINE powder, per Maria. But the way the picture shows I've coarsely ground the husks, 2 tablespoons of whole husks = 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 tablespoons of ground. So if you have powder, then use 1-1/4tablespoons for each 2 tablespoons of whole. If you grind your own to a coarse grind, use 1-3/4 tablespoons.)

(Note: Be sure to let the dust settle in the coffee grinder and do not breath any of the psyllium dust!)

In bowl of food processor, fitted with knife blade, pulse pork rinds into Panko sized crumbs. Remove and measure out 1/4 cup of crumbs for the recipe. Store leftover pork rind crumbs in a sealed container or zip tight bag for future recipes. Storing in the freezer yields the freshest results.

Blend drained baby corn and hominy in bowl of food processor using the knife blade until you achieve a smooth texture. Puree should resemble fresh masa. If necessary, add a tiny bit of olive oil to achieve masa texture.

Combine dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix to combine thoroughly.

Combine all wet ingredients except apple cider vinegar and 2 tablespoons bacon grease and eggs, into a separate bowl and beat until well combined.

Lightly beat eggs.

Add eggs to cornbread mix.

Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until well combined. Allow to sit for 10 minutes to allow the batter to absorb the liquids. You may see after resting that you need to add additional liquid to thin the batter a bit.
Preheat 10 inch cast iron skillet in a 350° oven for about 5-10 minutes. Remove from oven and add 2 tablespoons bacon grease.

Serving Ideas: Serving Ideas : Serve with any down home Southern main dish or vegetable. Great with a bowl of turnip greens and country style ribs.

SUSIET’s NOTES: This is for all of you who are allergic to nuts and can't use almond flour! There are a lot of ingredients but I hope it will be well-worth the effort to put this moist cornbread together. The texture and taste should be amazingly close to the high carb version. It freezes great and reheats very well.
I use a 1/2 recipe of this cornbread to make WaWa's dressing and it tastes so close to the real thing!
Cost Full Recipe (12 pieces): $6.53
Per Serving: $0.55

Thank you again, Susie! Not too late. Headed out now to buy a half a fresh ham (they had to order it in - everything in the case had sugar in it!) and the hominy, so will look for the psyllium husks as well. It seems like that textural element would work well in the corn bread.

This sounds sooo good, I will try it next time I want corn bread for anything. You make reference to an almond meal recipe, where can I find that. I do use almond flour because I am both low carb and wheat intolerant. Leaving out the bacon grease and the pork rinds would change the taste a bit but adding a smoke flavoring and using coconut oil for the baking oil should make this a vegan hit as well.